Tonight is the first round of the NFL Draft, the day every team has the chance to redefine itself. That’s a more pressing desire for some teams than others and with the second pick, the Niners fall into that camp after a 4-12 season.

With such a high-leverage pick coming, let’s take a look back at the three biggest draft picks in 49ers history:

The 1979 draft

1-2: James Owens (bust), Joe Montana (boon)

It’s not often you see a colossal washout selected in the same draft as a standard-bearing, multi-Super Bowl champion and sure-fire Hall of Famer. Bill Walsh bagged that parlay on his first try.

Walsh inherited a 2-14 Niners team that had turned the ball over an NFL-record 63 times and committed an NFL-high 154 penalties. As a bonus, he had no first-round selection in the 1979 draft. That pick (and four others) had been donated to the Buffalo Bills in exchange for a washed-up O.J. Simpson.

Walsh’s first selection in the 1979 NFL draft was the first pick in the second round (29th overall). He spent it on UCLA tailback James Owens. As Stanford coach, Walsh was privy to a sidelines eye of Owens and his world-class speed.

Walsh imagined Owens at receiver. But Owens’ progress at his new position was curtailed when he contracted non-contagious meningitis in his first training camp. When a rash of injuries took a toll on the team’s ball carriers, Walsh reassigned Owens to the backfield. Then, his defensive backfield in tatters, Walsh tried utilizing Owens’ speed at safety. In one of his first defensive assignments, Owens’ busted coverage led to a game-losing 48-yard touchdown pass with 1:29 left on the clock.

Owens asked to return to offense and was granted his wish. Repeated hamstring pulls dogged him, but every once in a while he flashed an eye-popping burst of speed. One of those occasions occurred in Owens’ second season when he caught a kickoff one yard in the end zone. He blew through the kick coverage and left the madding crowd in his dust. Then his hamstring popped. He had to hop the final 25 yards into the end zone.

Fifty-three picks later in the 1979 draft, Walsh more than made up for his first pick of the day, selecting quarterback Joe Montana with the last pick in the third round.

(Otto Greule Jr./Allsport)

Montana was so unassuming that some players figured he was a kicker. He was no instant success. Steve DeBerg, Walsh’s pick as starting quarterback, got most of the reps in practice and exhibition games that first camp. Finally Montana was given some extended playing time in the final preseason game at Seattle. He threw two pick-sixes in a 1:24 span that had the Kingdome pulsating.

Montana’s first regular season start came that winter at St. Louis on a frigid midwestern afternoon. By halftime he had completed five of 12 passes for 36 yards. DeBerg started the second half. The team announced that Montana (wink, wink) had turf toe.

By the 1980 season, Montana was demonstrating qualities that were beyond DeBerg. Montana started the final four games of the 1980 season, engineering a stunning comeback from a 35-3 deficit against the New Orleans Saints. It was the biggest come-from-behind victory in NFL annals at the time. The rest was history in the making.

The 1985 draft

3. Jerry Rice (boon)

Walsh was in his Houston hotel room the night before a 1984 game with the Oilers, fighting to stay awake. He might have lost that battle had he not heard a TV talking head promise some extraordinary highlights from a living legend named Jerry Rice. “That caught my attention and I sat up to take a look at this ‘living legend,’” Walsh later wrote.

What he saw was a dream come true. But there was a problem. The 49ers, by virtue of their Super Bowl victory after the 1984 season, were scheduled to be the 28th (and last) team to pick in the first round. The Sporting News published a mock draft the day before the draft, forecasting that the Packers would take Rice at No. 14. TSN had the 49ers picking Purdue cornerback Don Anderson at 28.

In reality the Packers traded up to grab an offensive tackle and Anderson fell into the second round. By virtue of some wheeling and dealing with the Patriots, Walsh had a free run at Rice at the 16th overall pick while other player personnel experts were asleep at the wheel.

Gary Peterson is a sports writer for the Bay Area News Group. His prior assignments included 31 years as a sports columnist, serving as a general assignment news reporter, covering courts and writing a metro column before finding his way back to sports.